Private renting and solar panels in Winsford

Two parties, one roof

Solar in a rented house brings together two people with different interests. The landlord owns the building and would carry the cost, the responsibility for repair and the paperwork. The tenant usually pays for the electricity, so most of the day-to-day benefit of using power from the roof lands with them. Neither can sensibly go ahead without the other, and neither should rely on a conversation that nobody wrote down.

That is the whole reason this page exists. The rules on the roof itself are the same as for any house, and the figures for output and cost are on other pages. What is particular to renting is the agreement, the grant arrangements for private tenants, the export tariff and access to the home.

Where private renting is common in Winsford

The 2021 Census puts private renting at 20.1% of households in Wharton, the highest of the town’s five wards. Dene follows at 17.3%, then Gravel at 15.1%, Over & Verdin at 13.9% and Swanlow at 10.6%. The figure for Cheshire West and Chester as a whole is 15.7% (ONS Census 2021). Across the five wards that is roughly 2,220 households living in a home owned by a private landlord.

Those households sit alongside large numbers renting from social landlords, whose position is quite different; housing association tenants covers it. The full tenure picture is on who decides about solar, and house types by ward are on homes by ward.

For tenants: getting agreement on paper

Before anyone fixes anything to the building, a tenant needs the landlord’s agreement in writing. That applies to roof panels arranged by either side and to small plug-in kits clipped to a wall or balcony. A useful written agreement covers these points:

• The work. What is being fitted, where on the building, and by which firm.
• Who pays. The split of cost between landlord, tenant and any grant, and when each payment falls.
• Ownership. Whether the equipment belongs to the landlord as part of the house, or to the tenant, as might be agreed for a plug-in kit.
• The export tariff. Whose name it will be in and what happens to it when the tenancy ends.
• Access. Dates for the survey and the fitting, and how much notice will be given.
• Upkeep. Who reports and pays for faults, and who keeps the certificates.

Keep the signed copy with the tenancy agreement. If the landlord sells the house or hands it to a letting agent, that record answers questions nobody will otherwise remember.

Grant help when the tenant qualifies

Cheshire East Council manages the consortium that runs the Warm Homes: Local Grant on behalf of west Cheshire, answering questions and judging eligibility for households in Cheshire West and Chester. Solar PV is among the measures it can fund, up to 31 March 2028 (council support page). Private tenants are one of the groups it lists, alongside owner-occupiers.

Three things decide whether a rented home is in scope:

• The home sits in band D, E, F or G on its Energy Performance Certificate.
• The household receives an income-related benefit, or has a total income of £36,000 or less before tax, or £20,000 or less after housing costs, or lives in a postcode the scheme treats as eligible.
• The landlord agrees to the work and, after their first property, pays at least half of its cost.

Applications go through GOV.UK. An assessment then decides which measures suit the home, and solar is only one of several possibilities, so applying is not the same as being offered panels. Insulation or heating may come first.

For landlords: what the grant asks of you

For a landlord, the grant changes the cost but not the responsibilities. The work is to your building, so you consent to it, you keep the certificates and you look after the system afterwards in the same way as a boiler. From the second property onwards, the council says, the landlord meets at least half of the cost; confirm with the scheme how that applies to your own homes before agreeing anything.

Talk to the tenant early. The household’s eligibility is what opens the scheme, so the tenant is the one whose income and circumstances are assessed, and they will need to be at home for visits. Agree in writing how the panels’ output will be shared in practice, which usually means the tenant using the electricity during the day and an export tariff in whichever name you settle on. Grants and schemes lists the other routes, including VAT and the council’s group-buy.

Export payments

Electricity the household does not use goes to the grid, and suppliers pay for it through the SEG scheme. Larger suppliers must offer a rate above zero to MCS installations of up to 50 kW that have a meter able to record exports (Ofgem). The tariff needs the installation’s MCS certificate, which the landlord as owner should keep and share as needed (MCS).

In a rented home the simplest arrangement is often for the tenant to hold the export tariff with the import account, because the two are read from the same meter. A landlord may prefer to keep it. Either works if it is written down, including what happens at the end of the tenancy. How much a Winsford roof tends to export, and when, is on export and self-use.

Access and disruption

A typical job involves a survey visit, scaffolding for a few days, a day or two of fitting, and a period with the electricity switched off while the inverter is connected to the consumer unit. Someone will need to go into the loft. Landlords normally give reasonable notice before access, and the tenancy agreement usually says how. Agree dates in advance, say where the scaffold will stand, and plan around anyone at home who relies on powered equipment.

If the landlord says no

A landlord is entitled to refuse, and some will, perhaps because a sale is planned, the roof needs work first or the paperwork feels like too much for one house. Ask for the reason in writing. A refusal based on cost may look different once the grant arrangements are explained, and one based on the roof may change after reroofing. If the answer stays no, the household can still make the most of cheaper hours on its own tariff, and the question can be raised again at renewal. Nothing should be fixed to the building without that written yes.

When the tenancy changes

Roof panels stay with the house when a tenant leaves. Before the move, take a final meter reading, note the export reading, and settle the tariff as the agreement says. The landlord should pass the inverter instructions and the certificates to the next household, along with a note of who to contact about faults. Should the landlord sell, a purchaser’s solicitor will want those papers too; buying a Winsford home with solar lists them.

The roof rules and the firm

The planning rules for panels on a rented house are the same as for one an owner lives in: on an unlisted house, pitched-roof panels normally need no application so long as they project no further than 0.2 m from the tiles and do not rise above the roof’s highest point (Part 14 of the order). Listed buildings and some conservation-area cases differ; see planning rules. Whoever arranges the work should check the firm’s registers and get written quotes, as set out in choosing an installer, and the owner’s written consent should be in hand before any survey.

Flats add a building owner to the picture; flats and solar explains. For a question about a particular rented home, use the question form.